The drivers gathered at the front of the grid, four on the left holding the Tricolore – led by Romain Grosjean, the sport’s only French driver, alongside Jenson Button, Nico Hulkenberg and Will Stevens – a few in the middle holding a placard for victims of road accidents, the prescribed reason for the minute’s silence.
F1 drivers show solidarity with Paris
Grosjean said beforehand that he would be thinking of Paris, as was everyone else. Renault quite rightly tweeted that this was where their heads were at.
Finally, our thoughts have been with friends, family and colleagues in our home city. Everything else has been overshadowed #PrayForParis
— Renault Sport F1 (@RenaultSportF1)
November 15, 2015
Todt, the diminutive 69-year-old, muscled his way in, nearly missing his prized photo opportunity. The Frenchman – yes, Frenchman – was determined not to let the road safety moment, his prized political hobby horse, lose its shares of the limelight ahead of a major conference in Brasilia this week.
Instead it was the paying of respects to those who died in Paris which was shunted away from centre stage. The bizarre middle ground, announced very late the night before the race, was that the drivers’ parade was the correct place to show Formula One was in solidarity with the people of Paris.
Whatever the intentions, it hardly stirred the emotions. The drivers gathered on the giant Mercedes truck which ferries them around the circuit, waving to the crowd. They wore black armbands while a French flag was draped on one side of the bus. That was it.
The announcement ahead of the minute’s silence on the grid only made reference to the terror attacks after an alteration a couple of hours before the race.
If it was not for Grosjean holding his native flag on the grid then in the primetime moment, 15 minutes before the race, Paris would barely have got a look-in.